The Village is set in the 19th Century

The movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody, took $50.8m (�27.8m) in its opening weekend, knocking the Bourne Supremacy into second place.

Denzel Washington's remake of The Manchurian Candidate entered at three, taking $20.3m (�11m).

Thunderbirds could only manage 11th place in its first week of release.

Costing $57m (�31m) to produce, the live action movie, starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Bill Paxton, took $2.7m (�1.48m) in its opening three days.

NORTH AMERICAN TOP FIVE 1. The Village 2. Bourne Supremacy 3. The Manchurian Candidate 4. I, Robot 5. Spider-Man Source: Exhibitor Relations

Shyamalan has previously directed thrillers Sixth Sense and Signs.

His latest movie, the Village, is set in the 19th Century and deals with the presence of creatures living in the woods of a seemingly-peaceful place,

But when a mutual agreement to keep out of each other's areas is breached by a human, the calm of the village is over.

The US box office is enjoying a bumper summer, passing the $1.3bn (�710m) for July, up 10% on 2003. The hike in takings is largely due to the success of Spider-Man 2,

Admissions also grew by 6% to reach a record 213 million during the month.

"We're on a pretty good roll right now," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

"This is a very strong way for summer to wind up. Usually, by August, things are really slowing down."